AMMYY Scam

These guys have been calling me for about a year, on and off, and lately have called about 3 times per day.

They are a total scam, in case that was not patently obvious.

They want you to install "scareware" - a form of malware you agree to install on your computer because they make up a false story about your computer... "We've noticed errors", etc.  What they want you to do is go to the RUN box and type in "www.aammyy.com" to install their zombie software.

A bit of forensic work... people install malware for money.  Hackers looking to score brownie points with other hackers are very 1990s.  Primary sources of money are the use of your computer and thousands like it as zombies to launch DDOS-based extortion scams against vulnerable systems like casinos.  They flood the server with 100,000 or so messages per minute for a day or two, then ask for $50,000 to $100,000 to stop the attack.  Nation-states - notoriously the PRC, but potentially also the DPRK - may also do this, but it's less well documented, and MUCH more professional.  In some cases, terrorism-related groups use it to fund their networks, but I understand this is also rare at this time [July 2013].

As with most crime-as-a-business, it's all about cost savings, so these guys usually work as cheap as possible - hence, the use of unimaginative scripts, the use of callers with accents very few North American English native speakers can understand, and the group's hallmark - absolutely BULLDOG persistence.  They will literally stay on for an hour, trying to walk you thru their process, even bringing in other speakers to help out.  The slogan that comes to mind is, "I'm making $1.35 per day, and I ***LOVE*** my job!"

This scam is interesting, because 1) It's been going on for a LONG time [years], 2) It involves boiler rooms [both men and women call, at all hours of the day and night, you can hear chatter in the background, and they use annoying auto-dialers; and 3) It's improved a bit over time.  Thus, it must be profitable [even if there are a lot of them, the copycatters must be making some dough].

Formerly, the phone number was from Texas, then other states, and now it's anonymous.  [Obviously, they are NOT in the US - they just hijack a US number.]  They variously tell you they are from "The Windows Corporation", or simply with "Windows".  They say they have "detected a lot of bad messages" - which is a fairly standard scareware hook.

I suspect they are **NOT** from India, but rather, from Pakistan, by the way.  I think Indian crooks are smarter - they'd hire better speakers, come up with better lines, and not spend all day with you.

Even though I realize most of these guys and gals are probably on the borderline of starvation, I find them so annoying and patronizing that I usually yell at them about how their boss is a crook, and I want to report them to Interpol.  [I do that with US scammers like duct cleaning services, too, but I substitute "FBI".]

The one who called me today told me he was from the nonexistent town of Marble Place, Ohio, and that he was from Global Infotech Solutions.  There are at least two actual companies with this name, but neither of them are scammers, so these guys just grabbed a name out of the air.  At different times, they have used other names.

I told him repeatedly I wanted to write down what he wanted me to do, so I could turn it over to Interpol, and he just kept talking and repeating himself.  [I don't think he was actually listening.]  Finally, he asked me what I saw, and I told him again.  He started cursing at me and calling me foul names!  It was hilarious - like "You Kicked My Dog" by the Jerky Boys.  I recorded it.  [He was on speaker].  I laughed and told him I'd been called much worse by a lot tougher guys than him, and he hung up.

It's a scam.  Tell your friends, tell your kids, tell your kids' friends, and tell your friends' kids.

Same thing happened to me this evening!  Like you, i fell for it  The person had a very heavy indian accent and  either severe allergies or a cold.  He called himself Steve and when he wanted to sell me a warranty because my other one "lapsed because of all the critical errors on my pc" I asked if I could put it on my Dell card he said no.  Of course by this time he had already done the remote in, he had tried teamviewer, ammyy and then rescueme I think (not turning my computer back on til I get it fixed)   At this point I said you may be Dell certified but you don't work for Dell!  He got beligerant and I closed the remote access and hing up on him  Fortunately I have a service warranty with Dell and this can be fixed.  I know exactly how you feel though!!